Should porn actors wear condom? Californians vote

Voters in California will decide on November 8 whether to pass a controversial ballot initiative regarding the use of condoms during the filming of porn movies.

Porn industry actors and film producers oppose the Condoms in Pornographic Films Initiative, also known as Proposition 60, as an unneeded overreach.

They say it wouldn’t improve worker safety and could drive their multibillion-dollar business out of California.

But the ballot initiative’s chief proponent, the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, says it would extend to sex workers the same kind of protection the state already grants to hospital employees and other people who are exposed to infectious diseases in their jobs.

Placed on the ballot by voter-signed petitions, it would establish a penalty of 1,000 to 7,000 dollars for failing to provide condoms or ensure their use.

The penalty could soar to as much as 1.5 million dollars in the case of deliberate violations that cause death or “prolonged bodily impairment.”

Proposition 60 would expand on a condom requirement already in effect in Los Angeles, where most of the state’s porn film production sites are located.

But the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health generally enforces it only in response to complaints, according to ballotpedia.com.

The requirement dates back to November 2012 when Los Angeles County voters approved Measure B, which required pornography actors to wear condoms on set.

A lawsuit in 2013 attempted to overturn Measure B, saying it imposed an unconstitutional restraint on workers’ freedom of expression. But the judge upheld the law as constitutional and concluded the measure would help alleviate health issues.

Proposition 60 would require adult film producers across the state, a leading producer of pornographic films, to provide condoms and ensure that they are used during performances in which “performers actually engage in vaginal or anal penetration by a penis.”

Condoms would not need to be visible in the final version of the film, but producers would need to prove that condoms were used.

The initiative also calls for film producers to pay the costs of performers’ workplace-related medical examinations and tests for sexually transmitted infections and vaccines.

In addition, adult film producers would be required to be licensed by California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health every two years, and producers would be required to contact the authority whenever they make an adult film.

An organization called For Adult Industry Responsibility (FAIR) has campaigned in support of the initiative. It is funded by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. As of Friday it and other supporters had raised nearly 5 million dollars, according to ballotpedia.com.

Opponents, organized as the Coalition Against Worker Harassment, have received just under 500,000 dollars, the website said.

Polls indicate that support for Proposition 60 is around 53 per cent. Both the California Democratic Party and California Republican Party oppose the measure.(dpa/NAN)